Mated To The Hockey Alpha Triplets

ISLAThe arena was so loud that I could feel it in my chest. Thousands of people were on their feet, screaming, and most of them were screaming the same three names. Killian. Asher. Zane. The Cross brothers. The Northern Wolves' golden triplets, the reason half this city called itself wolf territory even though nobody actually believed in wolves. I sat in the press box with my laptop open and my coffee going cold, and I tried not to roll my eyes every time the chant started up again."You'd think they cured cancer," I muttered.The reporter next to me, an older guy named Frank who'd covered hockey since before I was born, laughed without looking up from his own screen. "You really don't like them, huh.""I don't like anybody who gets handed the world and then acts like they built it themselves," I said.That wasn't the whole truth. There was more to it than that, but I wasn't about to explain my entire childhood to Frank in the middle of a game. So I just watched the ice instead, watc

ISLA I spent the whole next day at my desk, digging through old newspaper archives and league records, looking for anything about the night Ethan's career ended. I had read the official story a hundred times growing up. *Ethan Cole, promising young player, made a reckless move on the ice, broke league rules, got banned.*Case closed. Nobody ever talked about it again.But now that I was really looking, actually looking, the story didn't add up.The official report said the incident happened during a scrimmage with no cameras present, which was strange, because every single practice back then was filmed for training purposes. I found the roster from that day, and it had been changed twice, the names shuffled around like someone was trying to hide who was actually on the ice with him. And the doctor who signed off on Ethan's medical suspension didn't even work for the league anymore. He'd disappeared completely, no forwarding address, nothing.My hands were shaking a little by the tim